What's the easiest way to become happy?
Posted on Nov 19th, 2007
by 
tinkonthebrink
tinkonthebrink
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for November 18, 2007:
You can't really argue against being happy, right? I mean, we're all entitled to the pursuit of that, in this particular happy country, it's our right. And who doesn't want to be happy, to be a happy camper, a happy face, to turn that frown upside down?
I've said this before, but I'm not sold on the idea that happiness is all it's cracked up to be, as far as goals go.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not going after dissatisfaction and angst or anything.
It's just...I don't know, life is so complicated. Things get messy. Sometimes they get sad. Sometimes just confusing. And sometimes I think that's the juiciest place to be, not happy exactly, but wallowing in contradictions and surprises and even sometimes disappointments.
Maybe the path to happiness is the one that doesn't have the sign that says "happiness - this way!"
I've said this before, but I'm not sold on the idea that happiness is all it's cracked up to be, as far as goals go.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not going after dissatisfaction and angst or anything.
It's just...I don't know, life is so complicated. Things get messy. Sometimes they get sad. Sometimes just confusing. And sometimes I think that's the juiciest place to be, not happy exactly, but wallowing in contradictions and surprises and even sometimes disappointments.
Maybe the path to happiness is the one that doesn't have the sign that says "happiness - this way!"
Access: Public
appreciation
September 2008 
I think juicy might be a synonym for happy. I think for some - curmudgeonly might be a synonym for happy. maybe I'm going with this line of reasoning to more of comfortable as a synonym for happy. hmmmm.
I was doing a kundalini yoga dvd the other night in which the teacher asked of the students to think of a time when they felt sad or angry or afraid – it was an exercise in changing those emotions in to something else– peacefulness or inspiration or I don't remember because I got stuck at the part about manufacturing the emotion in the first place. I couldn't bring up a feeling of sadness or anger or fear at the moment– I'd just been doing yoga for 4+ hours a day for the past couple weaks. It's not that I am not capable of all those emotions, it's just that I didn't have any of them stored up inside me. I FEEL my emotions when I have them. I can't recycle them later because I feel them all the way when they are happening and then let them go. I think that, for me, is the key to my general state of being which is happy I think– or at least at peace/content. but I think you're right too – happy is just one emotion. we should be able to genuinely experience them all without being afraid of them.
I think I rambled. it's 3am– forgive me. {that excuse will get old by january when I go back to day shifts, but I'm going to keep using it until I can't get away with it anymore – haha– this tangent is making me think of a line from a regina spektor song– “you can write but you can't edit– yep that's me. :-) }
Dawn -
In a massage class a while back we did this little exercise where we took on the physical form of an emotion - and it's amazing how gloomy I feel if I sit hunched over with my head hanging down! It did really bring home to me that although I might think of my physical body as an instrument at times, it's actually quite a bit more of a give and take kind of relationship than that.
Yes! Happiness seems too what? maybe simple, single. I like juicy and involved and I like the idea of full experience of passing emotions and the moving on not grasping back. and Dawn I miss your body presence that sleeps away my waking time but I love that you can be rambling into the wee hours here in no-time-land.
Ohhh, can I rent a room in no-time-land? Just for a minute, but of course, that won't be any time at all…
I am laughing out loud in the presence of no one in no time land. I luff ya fishie!! and rapunzel– can you join our next “real” world expedition with camera in hand.
I posted all my nyc photos on facebook, but haven't uploaded any to zaadz because I'm not on my home computer here in no time land.
Right. How would I know happiness when it hit me over the head if I didn't have something to compare it with? Yeah, definitely.